The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Iran’ s premier dies in helicopter crash
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, its foreign minister and several officials have been killed after their helicopter crashed in a mountainous region of the country’s north-west.
The deaths come as the Middle East remains unsettled by the IsraelHamas war, during which Mr Raisi, 63, under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, launched a drone and missile attack on Israel last month.
Khamenei has announced that VicePresident Mohammad Mokhber would serve as acting president.
During Mr Raisi’s term in office, Iran enriched uranium close to weaponsgrade levels, further escalating tensions with the West as Tehran also supplied bomb-carrying drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine and armed militia groups in the region.
Iran has also faced years of mass protests against its
Shia theocracy over its ailing economy and women’s rights.
State TV gave no immediate cause for the crash that occurred in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province amid foggy conditions.
Among the dead was Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, 60.
The helicopter also carried the governor of East Azerbaijan province and other officials, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
Mr Raisi had been returning on Sunday after travelling to Iran’s border with Azerbaijan to inaugurate a dam when the crash happened.
IRNA said the crash killed eight people, including three crew of the Bell helicopter, which Iran purchased in the early 2000s.
Aircraft in Iran face a shortage of parts, often flying without safety checks amid Western sanctions.
As a result, former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif sought to blame the United States for the crash yesterday.
Mr Zarif said: “One of the main culprits of yesterday’s tragedy is the United States, which... embargoed the sale of aircraft and aviation parts to Iran and does not allow the people of Iran to enjoy good aviation facilities.
“These will be recorded in the list of US crimes against the Iranian people.”
The US has yet to comment on Mr Raisi’s death.
Early yesterday, Turkish authorities released drone footage showing what appeared to be a fire in wilderness “suspected to be wreckage of helicopter”.
The coordinates listed in the footage put the fire some 12 miles south of the Azerbaijan-Iranian border on the side of a steep mountain.
Footage released the
IRNA show what the agency described as the crash site, across a steep valley.
Soldiers speaking in the local Azeri language say: “There it is, we found it.”
Condolences poured in from neighbours and allies after Iran confirmed there were no survivors from the crash.
Pakistan announced a day of mourning and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his country “stands with Iran in this time of sorrow”.
Leaders of Egypt and Jordan also offered condolences, as did Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said he and his government were “deeply shocked”.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan conveyed his condolences and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a Kremlin statement, described Mr Raisi “as a true friend of Russia”.